DDOT recommends streetcar transitway for K Street

DDOT published their Union Station to Georgetown alternatives analysis this week. As expected the study recommends connecting the H Street NE streetcar route to Georgetown via a K Street Transitway. The extension how start on the Hopscotch bridge behind Union station and head east until traveling up New Jersey Avenue in MVT to K Street. It would then follow K Street until reaching Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown. The streetcar would have dedicated lanes from 10th Street NW to 21st Street NW.

I live in CityVista, facing K Street NW and definitely do not welcome the cable cars for several reasons, chief among them the fact that one detail DDOT tries to play down is the sidewalk narrowing that this project would necessitate along K Street NW between NJ Ave and Mt Vernon Square.

MVTCID just spent how many millions and the better part of a year improving the sidewalks with flower beds, outdoor terraces for restaurants, and a brick walkway for thru foot traffic and now DDOT wants to shave off seven feet from each side to accommodate the parking that the street cars are going to displace? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-parking. If our retail neighbors are going to succeed – and we want them to – customers in cars are going to need to be able to park nearby, but the extra wide sidewalks that we now enjoy should not be sacrificed for a street car, which is basically a ridiculously expensive bus in a semi-dedicated lane that is often subject to the same traffic congestion as its less sexy pneumatic brethren.

If this plan proceeds, all the new streetlights (too bright, but that’s another post) will have to be repositioned and the newly laid red brick “expressway” walking paths, away from the retail foot traffic, between the green space and the curb, will be permanently lost. What a waste!

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Thais Austin has lived in the Mount Vernon Triangle since 2006 with her dog Davis. She is an active community volunteer with the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, Mount Vernon Triangle CID, and with the DC Association of REALTORS. She brings to the blog a background in journalism, urban planning, and real estate and development. She is a REALTOR with Long and Foster, officing out of both Logan Circle and Bethesda Gateway locations and can be contacted at thais@lnf.com.